Then Martin came to stay

We left poor Bella the cat before her owners returned from their cruise to the frozen north. Not because we disliked her or because the anti-histamine tablets had failed to stop the rather nasty reaction the captain has to some cat hairs. No, a way simpler explanation. Ages ago we'd booked to see Al Murray (the Pub Landlord) live on stage in Yeovil.

OK, we know, why Yeovil? Well, it was the only place relatively close to Penarth that was at a non-boating time of year on this tour. We'd seen him live in Cardiff several years ago and were really impressed with his memory and quick wit. You just have to look past the profanities to the underlying humour and his ability to pin-point the ridiculous in almost anything:

The event did not disappoint. In contrast to the "loutish" character of the pub landlord,  he is an Oxford graduate and very smart indeed. Have a listen to some of his World War II podcasts. (No, this time you are not being spoon fed with a link, go and search for them yourself!) 

Once again we'd managed to get things in the diary to be pretty back to back. We drove back from Yeovil, got the boat going again and warmed it up just in time for Martin's arrival. You might remember Martin as half of the Canadian "Martin and Inge" double act. They owned a Nordhavn 47 in the UK which had to be sold when they returned to Canada. Martin was over to spend a few automotive type days with us. After one night on board we headed to Ledbury for lunch, then a wander around the lovely old town, including the pretty church:

We were overnighting in a hotel near Tewksbury. Again, you might ask why. Fair question really. That is because it is pretty close to Eastnor Castle, the place that Land Rover use for off-road vehicle testing and that offers off-road driving days. We'd so enjoyed them that we persuaded Martin to try it out. Here he is doing the "see how easily Defenders climb steps" thing:

A couple of the muddier, steeper rough trail type hills needed a bit of momentum to get up as you can see:

Martin had a busy day, wading through plenty of water, climbing hills and (even scarier) descending some steep slippery ones. The steepest was known as Gearbox hill by the instructors on site as it is used to destruction test gearboxes in prototype cars. Martin also felt how a 30 degree lean to one side seems like way more when you are driving along! He had plenty of tuition on how to assess the tracks, how to set-up the car and just how amazingly capable these things are. He also made it very muddy:

and seemed quite smug about that.

After romping around off road,  the next day was designed to tick one thing off his bucket list. A visit to the Morgan car factory, a tour around the production facilities, quick lunch and then a drive in a Plus 4. That satisfied grin reappeared:

especially as the rain stopped and he was able to have a hood down drive. The Morgan factory guy said that was the first time he had managed to do so in 2026. Unfortunately for Martin the trip had to come to an end after an hour but he returned in style as this little video shows:

Even more upsetting is that Morgan cars are not imported into Canada at the moment - not homologated for the local market. So much temptation. For us as well.

Following another night in the hotel, we took him to Heathrow so he could return home. Only the M4 was shut so we had a nice diversion. Then, Martin didn't get onto the flight he planned as it was full (being a retired Base Training Captain with Cathay Pacific doesn't give him seniority any more on the staff perks flight waitlist.) One downside to being a gentleman of leisure. Sadly the same flight the following day was full too so he spend two nights in an airport hotel on his own - we'd already headed off so were too late to rescue him. The "Cheap Flights" song by Fascinating Aida springs to mind. If you've somehow managed to never hear it, look at youtube link.

We felt bad having abandoned him expecting all to be well.

Back afloat, briefly again, we braved the half-term madness and had a trip into Cardiff to get a few bits. It was manic - wall to wall bored looking kids. Luckily the soft furnishing area in John Lewis isn't where they tend to congregate so we had some respite. In the big shopping centre, the Lego store had quite a display going on. The Welsh dragon was most impressive:

We thought that inside the place we would finally escape from the pesky seagulls who like to poo all over the boat but no, there were even a couple of them, looking as malevolent as always:

We hurried past, just in case. You never know.